National Security

Space Support to Operations

The capacity to deliver space services to the force: positioning, navigation and timing, satellite communications, missile warning and orbital reconnaissance, from national, allied and commercial constellations. One of the capabilities of Space Operations.

International families: 7,7412015 to 2024
Leading country: United States1.1× the next
All families: 26khome filings included
Over five years: Rising2020 to 2024 against the five before

Year by year

Patent families by country of origin and the year of the earliest filing, 2000 to 2025; 2025 is a part year, still filling in. International families are those for which protection was sought beyond one country.

Volume

International patent families in the capability, by the year of the earliest filing.

Source: Global Institute for National Capability (GINC), 2026. Underlying patents from 107 patent offices, IFI CLAIMS and Google

Share by country

Each country's share of the year's international families, in per cent: the capability's five largest countries of origin, 2015 to 2024, and the rest of the world.

Source: Global Institute for National Capability (GINC), 2026. Underlying patents from 107 patent offices, IFI CLAIMS and Google

Country leaderboard

International patent families, 2015 to 2024, by country of origin. Growth compares the latest five full years with the five before.

Ten largest

United States

China

Japan

South Korea

France

Finland

Sweden

Germany

United Kingdom

Taiwan

2,402

2,136

706

480

437

271

260

250

164


1	United States	2,402	31.0%	1.3×	3,910
2	China	2,136	27.6%	3.6×	17,716
3	Japan	706	9.1%	1.7×	912
4	South Korea	480	6.2%	3.5×	1,172
5	France	437	5.6%	0.9×	481
6	Finland	271	3.5%	5.5×	282
7	Sweden	260	3.4%	1.7×	262
8	Germany	250	3.2%	1.2×	288
9	United Kingdom	164	2.1%	0.8×	200
10	Taiwan	83	1.1%	3.4×	102
11	Singapore	81	1.0%	7.1×	86
12	Canada	64	0.8%	1.4×	93
13	Israel	53	0.7%	0.5×	65
14	Türkiye	49	0.6%	15×	56
15	Italy	34	0.4%	0.9×	41
16	Switzerland	28	0.4%	2.1×	29
17	Australia	25	0.3%	1.1×	28
18	India	25	0.3%	1.1×	41
19	Belgium	23	0.3%	0.9×	26
20	Austria	22	0.3%	0.7×	24
21	Netherlands	20	0.3%	1.5×	22
22	Spain	17	0.2%	1.8×	20
23	Russia	12	0.2%	0.7×	203
24	Luxembourg	12	0.2%	0.7×	13
25	Hong Kong	11	0.1%	1.8×	17
26	Denmark	10	0.1%	1.0×	10
27	Ireland	10	0.1%	0.7×	13
28	New Zealand	5	0.1%	1.5×	5
29	Poland	4	0.1%	–	13
30	Saudi Arabia	4	0.1%	0.3×	7
31	Norway	3	0.0%	2.0×	4
32	Portugal	3	0.0%	2.0×	3
33	South Africa	2	0.0%	–	4
34	Brazil	1	0.0%	0.0×	7
35	Mexico	1	0.0%	–	6
36	Czechia	0	0.0%	–	1
37	Malaysia	0	0.0%	–	1
38	Hungary	0	0.0%	–	1

Applicants

The largest applicants by international patent families, 2015 to 2024: across the world, then within each of the five countries with the most families in Space Support to Operations. Names are as held in the source and are not consolidated across subsidiaries.

Global

7,741 international families

HUAWEI TECH CO LTD · China

QUALCOMM INC · United States

HUGHES NETWORK SYSTEMS LLC · United States

ERICSSON TELEFON AB L M · Sweden

BEIJING XIAOMI MOBILE SOFTWARE CO LTD · China

NOKIA TECHNOLOGIES OY · Finland

740

382

318

235

231

228

United States

2,402 international families

QUALCOMM INC

HUGHES NETWORK SYSTEMS LLC

BOEING CO

APPLE INC

VIASAT INC

HONEYWELL INT INC

366

318

116

111

104

China

2,136 international families

HUAWEI TECH CO LTD

BEIJING XIAOMI MOBILE SOFTWARE CO LTD

ZTE CORP

GUANGDONG OPPO MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP LTD

OPPO GUANGDONG MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CO LTD

Datang mobile communications equipment co ltd

736

231

141

104

Japan

706 international families

MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP

SONY GROUP CORP

SOFTBANK CORP

NEC CORP

SONY CORP

NIPPON TELEGRAPH & TELEPHONE

131

South Korea

480 international families

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD

LG ELECTRONICS INC

ELECTRONICS & TELECOMMUNICATIONS RES INST

KOREA AEROSPACE RES INST

HYUNDAI MOTOR CO LTD

KIA CORP

182

France

United States

China

United Kingdom

France

Japan

335

189

129

2.1% shared · 5,439 families in both

China

United States

Japan

South Korea

Sweden

83,485

59,761

31,601

30,496

14,008

Crosswalk

How Space Support to Operations is matched to the patent classifications. The entries below were chosen for it; each stands for itself and everything beneath it in the scheme, 58 Cooperative entries in all. A patent family counts when any of its codes, in either scheme and at any office, falls under one of them. Codes since retired are placed under the entries that replaced them.

Entry	Title in the scheme	Why it is chosen	CPC codes	IPC codes	Documents
B64G1/10	Artificial satellites; Systems of such satellites; Interplanetary vehicles	Artificial satellites and satellite constellations	13	2	17,186
H04B7/185	Space-based or airborne stations; Stations for satellite systems	Satellite communication links and stations	44	4	133,728
G01S19/02	Details of the space or ground control segments	Space and ground control segments of satellite navigation systems	1	1	2,381
B64G1/1078	Maintenance satellites	Left out
H04B7/18502	Airborne stations	Left out

CPC and IPC codes are the codes in use on patent documents, at any office, that fall under the entry. Documents is the larger of the two schemes' counts of documents carrying one of them. An entry with no IPC codes can be told apart only in the Cooperative scheme.

The Cooperative codes in use that count towards Space Support to Operations: 58 codes on 153,295 documents. The full crosswalk is in the cpc-to-capability.csv download.

Code	Title	Under entry	How placed	Documents
H04B7/18513	Transmission in a satellite or space-based system	H04B7/185	In the scheme	25,290
H04B7/18519	Operations control, administration or maintenance	H04B7/185	In the scheme	14,594
H04B7/1851	Systems using a satellite or space-based relay	H04B7/185	In the scheme	10,505
H04B7/185	Space-based or airborne stations; Stations for satellite systems	H04B7/185	In the scheme	8,364
H04B7/18515	Transmission equipment in satellites or space-based relays	H04B7/185	In the scheme	7,993
H04B7/18517	Transmission equipment in earth stations	H04B7/185	In the scheme	7,449
B64G1/10	Artificial satellites; Systems of such satellites; Interplanetary vehicles	B64G1/10	In the scheme	5,423
H04B7/18521	Systems of inter linked satellites, i.e. inter satellite service	H04B7/185	In the scheme	4,738
H04B7/18539	Arrangements for managing radio, resources, i.e. for establishing or releasing a connection	H04B7/185	In the scheme	4,010
H04B7/18541	Arrangements for managing radio, resources, i.e. for establishing or releasing a connection for handover of resources	H04B7/185	In the scheme	3,963
H04B7/18563	Arrangements for interconnecting multiple systems	H04B7/185	In the scheme	3,402
B64G1/1085	Swarms and constellations	B64G1/10	In the scheme	3,160
H04B7/18582	Arrangements for data linking, i.e. for data framing, for error recovery, for multiple access	H04B7/185	In the scheme	3,050
H04B7/18523	Satellite systems for providing broadcast service to terrestrial stations, i.e. broadcast satellite service	H04B7/185	In the scheme	2,983
H04B7/18584	Arrangements for data networking, i.e. for data packet routing, for congestion control	H04B7/185	In the scheme	2,824
H04B7/195	Non-synchronous stations	H04B7/185	In the scheme	2,695
H04B7/18543	Arrangements for managing radio, resources, i.e. for establishing or releasing a connection for adaptation of transmission parameters, e.g. power control	H04B7/185	In the scheme	2,656
H04B7/18532	Arrangements for managing transmission, i.e. for transporting data or a signalling message	H04B7/185	In the scheme	2,411
G01S19/02	Details of the space or ground control segments	G01S19/02	In the scheme	2,381
B64G1/1007	Communications satellites	B64G1/10	In the scheme	2,247
B64G1/1021	Earth observation satellites	B64G1/10	In the scheme	2,205
H04B7/1853	Satellite systems for providing telephony service to a mobile station, i.e. mobile satellite service	H04B7/185	In the scheme	2,076
H04B7/18528	Satellite systems for providing two-way communications service to a network of fixed stations, i.e. fixed satellite service or very small aperture terminal [VSAT] system	H04B7/185	In the scheme	1,693
H04B7/18578	Satellite systems for providing broadband data service to individual earth stations	H04B7/185	In the scheme	1,637
H04B7/19	Earth-synchronous stations	H04B7/185	In the scheme	1,560
H04B7/18534	Arrangements for managing transmission, i.e. for transporting data or a signalling message for enhancing link reliablility, e.g. satellites diversity	H04B7/185	In the scheme	1,532
H04B7/18558	Arrangements for managing communications, i.e. for setting up, maintaining or releasing a call between stations	H04B7/185	In the scheme	1,454
H04B7/1858	Arrangements for data transmission on the physical system, i.e. for data bit transmission between network components	H04B7/185	In the scheme	1,432
H04B7/1855	Arrangements for managing station mobility, i.e. for station registration or localisation for geolocalisation of a station using a telephonic control signal, e.g. propagation delay variation, Doppler frequency variation, power variation, beam identification	H04B7/185	In the scheme	1,405
H04B7/18567	Arrangements for providing additional services to the basic mobile satellite telephony service	H04B7/185	In the scheme	1,380
H04B7/18545	Arrangements for managing station mobility, i.e. for station registration or localisation	H04B7/185	In the scheme	1,341
H04B7/18547	Arrangements for managing station mobility, i.e. for station registration or localisation for geolocalisation of a station	H04B7/185	In the scheme	1,207
H04B7/18526	Arrangements for data linking, networking or transporting, or for controlling an end to end session	H04B7/185	In the scheme	1,116
B64G1/1028	Earth observation satellites using optical means for mapping, surveying or detection, e.g. of intelligence	B64G1/10	In the scheme	969
H04B7/18589	Arrangements for controlling an end to end session, i.e. for initialising, synchronising or terminating an end to end link	H04B7/185	In the scheme	891
H04B7/18571	Arrangements for system physical machines management, i.e. for construction operations control, administration, maintenance for satellites; for fixed or mobile stations	H04B7/185	In the scheme	871
H04B7/18586	Arrangements for data transporting, e.g. for an end to end data transport or check	H04B7/185	In the scheme	853
B64G1/12	Artificial satellites; Systems of such satellites; Interplanetary vehicles manned	B64G1/10	In the scheme	760
B64G1/105	Space science	B64G1/10	In the scheme	748
H04B7/1856	Arrangements for managing communications, i.e. for setting up, maintaining or releasing a call between stations for call routing	H04B7/185	In the scheme	725
H04B7/18597	Arrangements for system physical machines management, i.e. for construction, operations control, administration, maintenance	H04B7/185	In the scheme	699
H04B7/18565	Arrangements for preventing unauthorised access or for providing user protection	H04B7/185	In the scheme	682
H04B7/18593	Arrangements for preventing unauthorised access or for providing user protection	H04B7/185	In the scheme	671
H04B7/18554	Arrangements for managing station mobility, i.e. for station registration or localisation for geolocalisation of a station using the position provided by an existing geolocalisation system	H04B7/185	In the scheme	484
H04B7/18576	Satellite systems for providing narrowband data service to fixed or mobile stations, e.g. using a minisatellite, a microsatellite	H04B7/185	In the scheme	463
H04B7/18595	Arrangements for adapting broadband applications to satellite systems	H04B7/185	In the scheme	462
H04B7/18591	Arrangements for interconnecting multiple systems	H04B7/185	In the scheme	457
H04B7/18573	Arrangements for system physical machines management, i.e. for construction operations control, administration, maintenance for operations control, administration or maintenance	H04B7/185	In the scheme	441
B64G1/1071	Planetary landers intended for the exploration of the surface of planets, moons or comets	B64G1/10	In the scheme	408
B64G1/1035	Earth observation satellites using radar for mapping, surveying or detection, e.g. of intelligence	B64G1/10	In the scheme	387
H04B7/18552	Arrangements for managing station mobility, i.e. for station registration or localisation for geolocalisation of a station using a telephonic control signal, e.g. propagation delay variation, Doppler frequency variation, power variation, beam identification using a telephonic control signal and a second ranging satellite	H04B7/185	In the scheme	371
H04B7/18556	Arrangements for managing station mobility, i.e. for station registration or localisation using a location database	H04B7/185	In the scheme	365
B64G1/1064	Space science specifically adapted for interplanetary, solar or interstellar exploration	B64G1/10	In the scheme	341
H04B7/18536	Shadowing compensation therefor, e.g. by using an additional terrestrial relay	H04B7/185	In the scheme	321
B64G1/1014	Navigation satellites	B64G1/10	In the scheme	257
H04B7/18569	Arrangements for system physical machines management, i.e. for construction operations control, administration, maintenance	H04B7/185	In the scheme	212
B64G1/1042	Earth observation satellites specifically adapted for meteorology	B64G1/10	In the scheme	185
B64G1/1057	Space science specifically adapted for astronomy	B64G1/10	In the scheme	96

Match: Through its tools

The classification names the equipment or technology the capability draws on, not the capability. The count says how much is being invented for it, not how well it is done. Mostly commercial: satellite communications is by far the largest part and is dominated by civil broadband and mobile networks; missile warning has no entry, and navigation receivers (rest of G01S19) are left out as consumer technology. The crosswalk is a first pass that nobody has reviewed.

Space Support to Operations

Year by year

Volume

Share by country

Country leaderboard

Ten largest

Applicants

Global

United States

China

Japan

South Korea

France

Similar capabilities

Crosswalk

Other capabilities in Space Operations